Chaos

Charles Manson, the CIA and the Secret History of the Sixties

By: Tom O’Neill, Dan Piepenbring

Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell

Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

As featured on The Joe Rogan Experience

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Chaos written by Tom O'Neill with Dan Piepenbring, read by Kevin Stillwell.

A journalist's twenty-year obsession with the Manson murders leads to shocking new conspiracy theories about the FBI’s involvement in this fascinating re-evaluation of one of the most infamous cases in American history.

In 1999, when Tom O’Neill was assigned a magazine piece about the thirtieth anniversary of the Manson murders, he worried there was nothing new to say. Weren’t the facts indisputable? Charles Manson had ordered his teenage followers to commit seven brutal murders, and in his thrall, they’d gladly complied. But when O’Neill began reporting the story, he kept finding holes in the prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi’s narrative, long enshrined in the bestselling Helter Skelter. Before long, O’Neill had questions about everything from the motive to the manhunt. Though he’d never considered himself a conspiracy theorist, the Manson murders swallowed the next two decades of his career. He was obsessed.

Searching but never speculative, CHAOS follows O’Neill's twenty-year effort to rebut the ‘official’ story behind Manson. Who were his real friends in Hollywood, and how far would they go to hide their ties? Why didn’t law enforcement act on their many chances to stop him? And how did he turn a group of peaceful hippies into remorseless killers? O’Neill's hunt for answers leads him from reclusive celebrities to seasoned spies, from the Summer of Love to the shadowy sites of the CIA’s mind-control experiments, on a trail rife with cover-ups and coincidences.

Featuring hundreds of new interviews and dozens of never-before-seen documents from the LAPD, the FBI and the CIA, CHAOS mounts an argument that could be, according to Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Stephen Kay, strong enough to overturn the verdicts on the Manson murders. In those two dark nights in Los Angeles, O’Neill finds the story of California in the sixties: when charlatans mixed with prodigies, free love was as possible as brainwashing, and utopia-or dystopia-was just an acid trip away.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Tom O’Neill and Dan Piepenbring (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

‘Riveting … Sensational revelations … True crime fans will be enthralled.’ PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

'[Full of] scandalous findings … to me it seems only too plausible. O’Neill's intricately sinister ‘secret history’ often sounds incredible; that doesn't mean that it's not all true.' OBSERVER

Disappointing

While I went into reading the book with a complete open mind and having finished Helier Skelter recently, I found Tom O'Neill's book disappointing. After watching his Podcast with Joe Rogan, I was really hoping that there would be some major revelation about what really happened, but he never had any solid conclusions other than all the speculative inferences he made. Most of the documentation referenced could always be interpreted with a conspiratorial angle. Conveniently, all the conspirators that are implicated in the book are dead. All the people O'Neill implicates as having covered up the "real" motives for the murders are no longer around to defend themselves.

While I don't doubt that the author was forensically thorough with the research, I would have loved for there to have been some sort of finality in O'Neill's ending. You know, nail your colours to the mast. I can't help but feel that O'Neill had a major beef with Bugliosi.

Excellent research

Learning more dirty tricks by the powers that be. The author has done incredible research.

Great book makes you rethink the Manson case

The books into a lot of detail in the life of an investigative reporter. Great book. I’ve read it twice now.

Chaos

A very long diatribe about 20years of finding nothing. So disappointing. Not recommended at all

Chias a must read

A thought provoking read and listen. . Eye opener into FBI after years of investigating. Could not put it down.

Brilliant!

So interesting and well researched. I want more books on conspiracy and cover up please Tom O’Neill!

Excellent

A great read taking place in the real world that reads more like fiction. Well researched